Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for ��˿�� to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S4F-00101

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 September 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 September 2011

To ask the First Minister, in light of the reported discovery of documents relating to the Gaddafi regime's connections with the US and UK intelligence services, whether the Scottish Government has requested access to any such documents that might be relevant to the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie.

Question reference: S4W-01646

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will bring forward primary legislation to amend the no proceedings process so that the Crown Office is not barred from pursuing a prosecution in cases where it issues a no proceedings letter and omits to include a caveat that the case can be pursued if further evidence is received.

Question reference: S4W-01645

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-38294 by Kenny MacAskill on 11 January 2011, what the timetable is for bringing forward legislation to allow the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to publish a statement of reasons in cases where appeals have been abandoned.

Question reference: S4W-01557

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many disabled job applicants it had in (a) 2007-08, (b) 2008-09, (c) 2009-10 and (d) 2010-11 and has had in 2011-12 and how many it offered or has offered an interview.

The Scottish Government monitors the number of candidates with disabilities at each stage of the selection process where Scottish Government Human Resources provides a recruitment service for externally advertised posts.

The table below lists the number of candidates who have declared a guaranteed interview (GIS) under the Positive about Disability Scheme from all government core external recruitment.

Year

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12*

No. of applicants claiming a guaranteed interview (GIS) under the Positive about Disability Scheme?

No. of applicants with GIS status who passed the sift

No. of applicants with GIS status who were offered a post.

The information requested is not held centrally.

172	85	34
54	23	12
6	1	0

Note: *From 1 April 2011 until 30 June 2011.

Question reference: S4W-01555

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it monitors the number of disabled applicants for jobs with (a) it and (b) employers for which it provides all funding and which use the double tick disability symbol.

The numbers of disabled applicants are monitored as part of any recruitment exercise undertaken by the Scottish Government.

In instances where the recruitment exercise is managed by external suppliers on behalf of the Scottish Government, for example for the recruitment of Senior Civil Servants, a full diversity analysis is provided.

The monitoring of disabled applicants for jobs with organisations funded by the Scottish Government which also carry the double tick disability symbol is a matter for those organisations.

Question reference: S4W-01556

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 August 2011

Data on the percentage of Scottish Government Employees who are disabled is reported as part of the annual Civil Service Statistics publication. This is published by the Office for National Statistics.

Data is available at this web location .

The latest available figures are as follows:

Disabled Employees as a Percentage of Known Disability Status

2007-08	5.5%
2008-09	5.6%
2009-10	5.9%
2010-11	6.4%*

Note: *This data is not yet published.

The current percentage of Scottish Government employees who are disabled is 6.1% (as at 30 June 2011).

Question reference: S4F-00084

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 June 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 June 2011

To ask the First Minister what discussions the Scottish Government has had with the legal profession regarding the attendance of solicitors during interviews following the Cadder ruling.

Question reference: S3W-39068

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it holds a list of people suspected of having their mobile phone calls illegally intercepted and, if so, what steps it has taken to notify them.

Question reference: S3W-38799

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-38294 by Kenny MacAskill on 11 January 2011, whether it intends to bring forward primary legislation and, if so, whether it will specify the reasons for so doing rather than amending the order by means of a new statutory instrument.

Primary legislation is needed for full flexibility to ensure that an appropriate legislative framework is put in place. The proposed legislation will facilitate, as far as possible, the release of a statement of reasons by the commission in circumstances where an appeal has been abandoned. In doing so, it will also maintain appropriate provision for such matters as data protection, the convention rights of individuals and international obligations attaching to information provided by foreign authorities.

Question reference: S3W-38798

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-38294 by Kenny MacAskill on 11 January 2011, whether it can confirm that considerations in relation to data protection legislation are not relevant in this case given that section 194K(4) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 ensures that, where Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission disclosure is permitted by means of a statutory order, “the disclosure of the information is not prevented by any obligation of secrecy or other limitation on disclosure (including any such obligation or limitation imposed by, under or by virtue of any enactment) arising otherwise than under that section.”